Marocco Alessia, Assael Baroukh, Gabutti Giovanni, Guarino Alfredo, Lopalco Pier Luigi, Marchetti Federico, Ruggeri Franco Maria, Titone Lucina, Tozzi Alberto Eugenio, Vitali Rosati Giovanni, Zotti Carla, Franco Elisabetta
GlaxoSmithKline S.p.A., Verona.
Ig Sanita Pubbl. 2006 Mar-Apr;62(2):215-44.
Rotaviruses (RV) are the most common etiological agents in acute gastroenteritis (GE) in children in the first years of life. Data from the national scientific literature show that RV is responsible of 26% of all cases of hospitalisation for diarrea in children, resulting the most frequently identified agent. The Italian database of hospital discharge, freely available from the web site of the national Ministry of Health, was searched to investigate the epidemiology of RV gastroenteritis. The mean number of hospitalisation for RV enteritis in children in the first 4 years of live was 4.758 in the years 2001, 2002 and 2003, representing 84% of viral enteritis. RV was identified as agent in 17% of all intestinal infectious diseases in this age group. This percentage shows the important role of RV in severe gastrointestinal infections; it is however much lower than the value expected from specifically performed surveys. This underestimation may be attributed to the high number of undefined gastroenteritis found in the database (54%), to the scarce sensitivity of the hospital discharge code, and to the fact that the analysis was performed using only the principal diagnosis. A specific immunisation strategy, safe, effective, cost-effective and easy to perform, could have a great impact on the incidence of the disease and on the associated costs.
轮状病毒（RV）是婴幼儿急性胃肠炎（GE）最常见的病原体。国家科学文献数据显示，RV导致儿童腹泻住院病例占所有此类病例的26%，是最常发现的病原体。检索了意大利国家卫生部网站上可免费获取的医院出院数据库，以调查RV胃肠炎的流行病学情况。2001年、2002年和2003年，1至4岁儿童因RV肠炎住院的平均人数为4758人，占病毒性肠炎的84%。在该年龄组的所有肠道传染病中，RV被确定为病原体的占17%。这一百分比显示了RV在严重胃肠道感染中的重要作用；然而，该比例远低于专门调查预期的值。这种低估可能归因于数据库中大量未明确的胃肠炎病例（54%）、医院出院编码的敏感性不足，以及分析仅使用主要诊断这一事实。一种安全、有效、具有成本效益且易于实施的特异性免疫策略，可能会对该病的发病率和相关成本产生重大影响。
